Bentley Continental R SuFaCon
At first sight, this Bentley doesn’t look rare, but there are only 14 copies. It comes from one of the most famous car collections in the world. In the late 1980s and during the 1990s, the royal family of the small Southeast Asian island nation of Brunei single-handedly kept various car brands (Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Bentley) an the design house Pininfarina alive. The wealth from the oil deposits on the small territory of the state was used for this purpose. In addition to the Sultan Hassan Bolkiah, it was above all his car-crazy brother, Prince Jefri, who put together an incomparable collection. To this end, he not only ordered cars off the shelf, but also commissioned unique special bodies. Some of which were built up to 20 times exclusively for Brunei.
14 copies of the SuFaCon for Brunei
This Bentley Continental R is also one of the special orders. However, it hides its special parts more cleverly than some other projects. Its unusual epithet “SuFaCon” maybe let’s you think. It stands for “SUper FAst CONtinental”, making it clear that quite a bit has been modified here on the powertrain level. Normally, the Continental R first presented 30 years ago received the 6.75-liter V8 engine typical of Bentley. Initially, around 325 hp was available, later upped to 360, rising to 385 hp in the Continental S and finally to 426 hp in the top-of-the-range Continental T. However, this wasn’t enough for Prince Jefri, who commissioned the P300 specification from Bentley. New turbochargers and further modifications to the engine increased output to 534 hp. It remained, however, with a four-speed automatic. The luxurious coupé sprinted from a standstill to 60 mph in just five seconds. To match the extra power, the brake system received two calipers per front wheel.
Nine louvres behind the headlights
Visually, the special version of the Continental R is recognizable by slightly modified front and rear bumpers. More noticeable, however, are the air vents on the engine hood behind the headlamps. Hot exhaust air above the turbochargers escapes to the outside through these nine louvres on each side. Prince Jefri ordered 14 copies of the SuFaCon. All of them are right-hand drive due to the left-hand traffic in Brunei and came to the first owner in coordinated color combinations. In addition to the black vehicle shown here (the number 14), there is, for example, one in blue, one in green and one in yellow.
Low mileage, from first ownership
DK Engineering in Great Britain currently offers this Bentley Continental R SuFaCon for sale. It left the Crewe factory as the final example of this special series on October 8, 1994 and remained in original ownership until early 2021. Due to the huge car collection in Brunei, it isn’t surprising that the mileage is only just under 7,300 miles. The price for this unique vehicle is revealed only upon serious request by the British dealer.
Images: DK Engineering
